So, yeah, I’ve watched the replay now. My overall impressions are that (1) the team still suffered from more than its fair share of mental lapses and breakdowns in execution (if you want the exhaustive play-by-play on that, check out Ben Dukes’ posts: 1st quarter2nd quarter3rd quarter4th quarter) and (2) Georgia’s offensive game plan for the most part played into Boise State’s obvious defense strength and ignored Georgia’s offensive strengths.

I think what interests me most about the game is that both teams had to react and adjust to the losses of their big play receivers. Boise State did so by testing what it could do within its tried-and-true scheme; when it found that it didn’t have the speed to play with Georgia’s secondary on the deep ball and that Georgia was doing a good job controlling Doug Martin, it simply refined its attack within its system.

The lack of a deep threat wasn’t an issue. Not in the least: instead, Boise went methodical on Georgia, going short, shorter and shortest in the passing game — Moore didn’t break a sweat — and continuing to try running at Georgia’s front, albeit with a twist. Seeing that Martin was struggling gaining traction out of a traditional formation, the Broncos loosened things up a bit with freshman quarterback Grant Hedrick, who may have only rushed for 18 yards on a pair of carries but certainly gave the Bulldogs another look to consider.

Boise recognized what was being offered by Georgia’s defense and exploited it.

Defensively, Georgia did not give up a play longer than 20 yards, but quarterback Kellen Moore took aim at Georgia’s zone coverage, completing 28 of 34 passes for 261 yards and three touchdowns.

“That was how we figured they were going to use their personnel,” Boise State offensive coordinator Brent Pease told the Idaho Statesman. “We didn’t know they were going to be as wide open as they were sometimes.’

On the other side of the ball, Georgia spent a large part of the night running out of shotgun spread formations, rather than its traditional I-formation look. The hope was that it would spread Boise State’s defense out as well, and create space for Georgia’s rushers and receivers. Instead, for much of the time what it wound up accomplishing was to leave Georgia’s inexperienced five-man offensive line in a losing battle against the Broncos’ experienced defensive front.

As a result, Boise State controlled Georgia’s running game (except for that beautifully blocked 80-yard Boykin TD run) and was able to harass Aaron Murray for much of the night. When Georgia went to its I-formation stuff, the results were often successful, but it seemed that Bobo used it as little more than a change of pace to the basic game plan. That was a shame, as it turned out that many of the things we all thought were available for Georgia to exploit – superior speed and matchup problems with the tight ends, for example – were there to deploy.

Boise in fact didn’t have an answer for the speed of Boykin and Mitchell (and wouldn’t have had one for Brandon Smith, if anyone had thought to use him on offense). And Orson Charles was simply a nightmare for the Broncos’ back seven all game.

But the biggest head-scratcher of all for me is what that meant to Georgia’s backs. Samuel is a power runner who needs a head of steam to be effective. The shotgun spread insured that wasn’t going to happen. Isaiah Crowell is a freshman who isn’t fully up to speed on pass protection; the spread exposed his weakness exponentially.

And that in the end was the big difference. Boise stayed with what it was experienced doing and simply refined its approach in response to game conditions. Georgia changed its usual way of doing things and seemed reluctant to modify its attack despite the in-game results. That’s pretty much a recipe for how to lose a game to an opponent less physically gifted and deep than you are.

Ben Dukes concludes that Georgia’s problems in the Boise State game are fixable. For the most part, I think he’s right. But as we all know from having watched this program over the past three seasons, there’s been a yawning gap between fixable and fixed. I’m afraid the lesson from Saturday night is that Mark Richt is running out of time to bridge that gap.

57 responses to “Upon further review: general observations”

Your fixable statement seems funny to me. On the 4th and 1, did the motion man blow his assignment by going to the CB instead of blocking the DE? Or was that some BS design? Either way the result is the same for the last half decade. Fixable would be year 1 or 2, not year 4. It’s the SAME THING year in and year out now. Not a damn thing ever changes. Nice conservative game planning mixed in with a dozen boneheaded mistakes that gets us a loss against any good team (what are we, 1-12 now against teams finishing ranked —- that’s a sick joke).

Our DL played well overall. Did you read the posts at Ben Dukes’ blog, or the Seth Myerberg article linked in the post? Our Dline was absolutely not the problem.

But Boise’s OL is really good, yes. That’s why our own good DL wasn’t able to impose it’s will all night long. We did stuff the run for the most part, though. Let’s criticize what is actually wrong and not just dismiss everybody in one fell swoop?

Where do you see me “dismiss[ing] everybody in one fell swoop”? Last time I checked, the DL consists of 3 guys. And I’ve elsewhere said that I think our secondary is actually much improved.

But because a blogger says the DL wasn’t the problem, I’m supposed to agree? When your back-up NT came in advertised as the next Terence Cody, and you’re playing against a seriously under-sized OL, and yet, you fail to record a single sack (and really only even pressure the opposing QB twice), then either (a) the opposing OL is All-World, or (b) your DL under-performed. As I understand it, the basic idea is for 3 disruptive DL to occupy all 5 OL, opening up gaps for blitzing LBs. But if the 3 DL are not disruptive enough to command that sort of attention, there will always be an available OL or two to pick those LBs up. Which, to my eye, is exactly what happened for much of the game. I put that on the DL. I just hope that Boise’s OL is the best we’ll face all season.

Given the obvious troubles we had, to focus on the DL as being bad implied (to my mind) that you must think everybody sucked. In other words, I assumed you weren’t trying to stand up for a different part of the defensive unit when you criticized the DL.

You don’t have to agree with Dukes or any other person, blogger or no. I thought Dukes and others offered a good analysis of our DLine play. You disagree? OK. And you offer reasons for disagreement in your comment just now. I have no problem with that. This is a conversation, right?

We actually *did* pressure Moore more than twice, though. They responded with quick reads and dumping the ball into space. Which is not on our DL. And their OL really *is* very, very good. This is not an after-the-debacle justification: it’s been in the stats all along. “Undersized” by a bit, but very fast and athletic for their size. They always play well, and they played well on Saturday night. In the meantime, we shut down the run, especially the inside run, which Boise is also usually very good at.

We won’t know for sure til’ we get more games under our belt, but I continue to think the DL’s execution was very good, under the circumstances.

Two things about their OL 1 They were able to use leverage to their advantage against our taller DL guys. Leverage is almost as important as size and speed for an OL. Ever wondered how shorter Summo wrestlers defeat mammoth one, leverage.

2 They were cut blocking our DL all night so that Moore could see. Some of those looked a lot like chop blocks but none were called.

Combine a very technically good OL with a almost robotic QB throwing short and it impossible to bring pressure.

Xon, would you also agree that they scored 35 points on the D? Didn’t we expect more good play and less score?

For what it’s worth, you and Turd discuss both good and not-so-good aspects of the D quite well. The Senator’s overall remarks are to the point mostly with good analysis. I saw the game Blut described. I disagree about player placement(Brandon Smith) because we don’t know what the sidelines personnel are faced with nor do we know which players are suitable for those moments we perceive them to be. Give the Coach the benefit of the doubt since it is his job to know them better than we are led to believe by the media. You can put all the player speed on the bench in the game at once, but there are too many variables for differing combos of players to think that we would begin to get a leg up with such a philosophy. Not playing a favorite speedster doesn’t constitute a criticism of our coach.

That said, I enjoy some analysis and views of what I saw, but when the conversations turn to coach bashing, I just get tired and feel my age. There is just no way to convey the turnoff that judgemental attitudes toward staff personalities does to me. Get pissed and criticize without outlandish jabs at replacing anyone once the season has started. The time for that is after the season and by and large most regular bloggers adhere to that including the Senator. Others have a differing agenda that’s like wading through peanut butter.

Soft zone coverage? Mental lapses? Breakdowns in execution? Where have we heard that before? Without consistency on the OL we are doomed. They have got to get a better push. Defensively, Tree is out for a while. I have a feeling uSC will be coming right up the middle with Lattimore.

It seems like the rational-but-displeased judgments about this game are all bascially collecting at the same place. I “enjoyed” this article, Senator.

I think our D is significantly better. Not that there aren’t concerns with how much space Boise was able to adjust into at times, but overall our basic DNA-level problems looked more-or-less fixed to me. Some slight cause for hope going forward, at least.

I thought that we played pretty typical of what we now are (from the last three years anyway). Boise State was confident and were playing to win. UGA was wondering IF we could win. There is a difference.

Not trying to get anyone off the hook here because I’m as frustrated as anyone about the offense, BUT had the offensive personell played well would we be bitching about play calling? I don’t know how any staff deals with a senior RT who false starts twice on the first series, the so called #1 rec. has 2 easy drops, you go to your star twice on third down and on one he hits the turf in the break and another he just flat drops the ball, your qb looks indecisive and holds the ball too long, and your o-line gets physically whipped by smaller guys. Yes, I know that the coaches are responsible for all this as well, but all of us would be genius coaches would likely not anticipate the degree of sucktitude that our offensive players showed. It at least matched the coaching if not exceeded it and in my mind probably resulted in the final score more so than play calling. You should have gotten better results in the first half had the plays come from a 4 yo or a random generator.

Ben Dukes breaks down every offensive play, one at a time. He definitely makes it sound more like an execution problem than a playcalling problem. The right side of our OL (and also Bean) got blown up many, many times.

Now, a failure to execute is still a coaching problem, as you say. So this isn’t about letting coaches off the hook. But we have to bitch about the right thing. It’s important. 🙂

The biggest problem with Bobo and I said it before the game, is he tries too hard to be cute with his play calls. Look at how LSU handled OU the same night. They knew they had to grind them and they did. LSU’s O started off slow with their D holding OU down much like our D did. The difference was that LSU’s O kept pounding away at them until the smaller OU DL gave way then LSU had their way with them. Bobo used the only Offense that Boise could defend without worry because it’s the one they play against week in and week out in the WAC/MWC, the “spread”. Defensing Bobo’s O is like dueling with an unarmed man.

Too “cute”, too “bland”, too “sameole”. Endless litany of undefineable remarks that can’t withstand analytical scrutiny. It’s called harping. I’m not defending Bobo, only trying to rally the fans to the staff and team that made good plays and bad mistakes in their first game. It really takes away from game appreciation and enjoyment when one person is singled out and stigmatized for fans to watch for anything that could be spun as a fault. I watch the players execute. I do not watch how Bobo or Richt cock their hats or what in hell is going on with the sidelines. The athletic contest is on the field and giving your individual judgement of a game plan or play calling won’t change squat for what takes place on the field. Dislike them all you want, but when you post your judgemental dislike publically, you are undermining team confidence, not constructively criticizing.

11 years in, and Richt STILL has no clue how to manage a game. I’m so over Richt….he’s at best the 8th best game day coach in the SEC, and that’s with Muschamp being an unknown. Just pathetic. Our next coach needs to come from a background of knowing how to win with equal or inferior talent, rather than the FSU “out-athlete” model.

+1 And he isn’t the only UGA fan. OK for those who want a change for various reasons but the level of thinking is troubling. Yeah, the guy is a complete, incompetent loser. And you wonder why our fanbase is ridiculed around the country. And man, the ones hiding behind the terms “realist” and “cynical” have been riding this horse even in the good times.

A suspect game offensive game plan, poorly executed. An offensive staff too stubborn or incapable of making in-game adjustments or to exploit an opponent’s weakness. An offensive line that frequently looks like it belongs in lower division college football. Having a converted linebacker bang into the line with his head down every third play after a delayed handoff. Hey, I feel sorry for the guy–he just doesn’t have the tools to be an effective SEC running back, but Samuel is apparently trusting the coaches (and taking one for the team).

Clearly, I’m not optimistic about the future. I’d love to be wrong. Yes, I do see areas that this team can improve on almost immediately. But such adjustments and proper execution have become the exception for Georgia football, while the rule is the garbage we saw on Saturday night. Not that they are particularly insightful or are always right, but the national college football media (SI, CFN, ESPN) has really picked up on Georgia’s predictable, but inexplicable (given the resources and talent pool) failures. “Same ol’ Georgia.” Even the typical coach apologists are shrugging their shoulders. Not good for the UGA coaching staff, but maybe good for Dawg fans in the long-run.

On the bright side, our run defense looked much improved. We’ll certainly be tested in that area this week.

I’m trying to withhold judgment until after this weekend. I don’t know excatly what I’m looking for, but if South Carolina can give up 37 to East Carolina, we ought to be able to score a touchdown or two. I think Sunday we’ll have a good feel if Mark Richt looks like a coach, or like dead man Ray Goff walking the sidelines in 1995.

Yeah, I’m in basically the same boat. If the story of the season ends up being that we just came out unprepared to face a top-5 team in the season opener, I guess I can live with that. But if we play against SC like we played against Boise, it’ll be hard for me not to completely give up on the season.

This was already going to be a big game. But after the debacle against Boise, it’s hard to imagine this Saturday being any bigger.

I agree with your analysis and want to go a step deeper. What is it about our offensive philosophy that prevents us from making those in game decisions. I would look at the basic core beliefs. Kellin Moore said after the game that their primary philosophy on offense is to make positive yards each play. That implies that what they do on offense becomes predicated on what the defense does during the game… they adapt to take what the defense gives them. If you were to ask cmr or bobo what our primary goal on offense is… I would bet the house they would both say “to execute our offense”. To me… this implies that we run our offense in a vacumn… if we are successful then it really makes no difference what the defense does. This probably goes back to CMR’s days at Florida State where they could impose their will on their weak ACC foes… with today’s parity in college football… it no longer holds water.

Senator, excellent points all. It just seems we have no idea what are the right adjustments to make. I go back to the Kentucky game in 2002 when we were in a track meet with them. Van Gorder went into the locker room, made some adjustments, and shut them down in the second half. It looks like the coaching staff just thinks if it’s not in this week’s game plan, then don’t do it, but I’m not in the arena. What do I know?

Having watched this program very closely for many years (into my 4th decade of actually paying attention), just as many of you have, I can tell you that I’ve seen this movie before. I saw it when Dooley had talent out his ears but couldn’t beat a miserable KY team or lost a few close ones to a mediocre Clemson team even though we had 3 rb’s on the same team that would have blown by Boise’s line (Hampton, Tate, Worley) and a D loaded with studs. We all saw Goff struggle to win games and often lose to vastly inferior teams (Vandy ’94) by just not showing up. We saw Donnan’s teams who were loaded with talent (pattern here) lose to our primary rivals in inexplicable ways all the while knowing there was a missing piece called “it”. At some point, all these coaches stop having “it” (Goff never had it) yet our southern-boy manners and patience told us to give them “one more chance” since they could certainly turn it around with all that talent. Well you know what, the movie always ends the same way — with change.

I have wanted to believe that Richt and Co. could change and return to the top, to the point of denying the fact that “it” left the building some time ago. The disease (as I call let) crept in 4-5 years ago with losses that made us scratch our head and wonder in disbelief, and as time has passed the disease has only gotten worse. Georgia Football is an embarrassment of riches – revenue, talent, facilities, support – but yet here we are looking up again at teams like South Carolina (who certainly is our equal with resources, right?) and losing to excellent coaches teams like Boise, who have ZERO top 25 recruiting classes!

Folks, I want to believe that we can become relevant again with Richt but I’m not going to deny it anymore, he is done. It’s his 11th year and the shine is gone, denying that is foolish. The schoolboy optimism that I used to have has been replaced with logic and rationale and both tell me the same thing – that the movie will end the same way, again.

You can bet McGarity has a short list and will be given a big check to write. The only question left is who will it be?

We have been informed repeatedly that the people that matter in the decision making process are firmly behind CMR. Maybe it’s the fact he can beat Tech almost every year.

I couldn’t agree more about the amount of talent and the facilities at CMRs disposal. Even the fan support Saturday night was off the charts. Yet there we sat, getting outplayed in front of the entire country.

I am still holding out hope that Saturday was just a young team getting a hard lesson. Perhaps BSU is that good and perhaps we just needed to get that first game out of the way.

It was interesting to read Dukes’ articles per quarter about the OL play. It was of interest to see that he commented at least two times about the pad level being bad. The last two years I have commented about how good and consist Boise’s pad level in on both pass and run. Their line play and the plays they run make it difficult for a defense because they do not tip if they are running or passing. Plus, they do a good job of creating passing lanes for a very quick, accurate passer.
Now let’s focus on why some of the play was less than stellar. The OL has a new coach. A coach with a very good resume…Parade All American and four year player at Bama. Last evening I watched a replay. At times I thought they did good and their tech was good. They faced a very good opponent [at least that is what the polls think, too] with a good D. No doubt their delayed rushes created issues.
After watching the second time CMR and staff played a lot of guys. As far as preparation for Boise CMR and staff played a lot of 1st time starters and freshman. That is a huge task for guys who just a few months ago was playing at the high school level. There are some players in that class. I thought for their first D1 gamethey played well against a very experienced, well-coached team. It will be hard for Friend to work time in for fundamentals. But we will see how they correct and play up at home this weekend.
I think the coaches will progess with these guys. It has a way to go, but these guys maybe able to take a lot of coaching at a fast pace.
The area I would like to see progression is in maturity and focus in the game. Boise has that. They play with a high level of confidence and with trust in each other to execute on every play. Apparently, Spurrier sees that too. They play the game the way it should be played…as players, fans, and coaches want to see it..

Add to that the fact that coach after coach has coached our players to keep pad level low. I have read and seen it several times. How many more times have they been coached accordingly that we didn’t hear? But in the chaos of the game I can understand the players temporarily being caught up in something other than the way they were coached. A coach can’t run beside them and put downward pressure on their body during the game. They are coached to focus, but not until the iron’s in the fire do we know how everyone will react and how long to settle down and focus as well as they have been taught.

People give to the team and the alma mater what they can afford and care to, not for influence as to who coaches. Some ignorant idiots have come on today and ranted about withholding donations and demostrate that they aren’t alums nor do they know why alums donate.
We got our asses beat in the first game this year. Nobody liked that. Tearing at the fabric of the team and staff after one or even two games is foolhardy and doesn’t accomplish squat. Let me suggest that some of you line up at the AD’s door with the amount of donations you have made in the past documented in your hand, then parade in one at the time according to “gifting” level and influence him to act at this time of the season to change a coach. Be careful of the crotchburn you’ll get when he heaves you out and throws a check for your “donations” behind you.

Between Doofusdawg and JaxDawg I think the problem has been identified. Richt’s comment during the Bulldog club tour that he “knew what the hell he was doing” was telling. I think he doesn’t know how to stop what has started. He is too grounded in the Bobby Bowden FSU just out talent them school of coaching. So when we have a bad season he recruits harder to get better players then we look worst, why because of coaching. UGA unlike the 90’s FSU can’t just walk on the field and win, it’s called parity. Everybody has 85 guys and the coaching counts now more than ever. Richt was lucky to start, the SEC was down and even though we still could not beat UF we managed to win two SEC championships. Look at the UF situation, they have great talent but they also, with the exception of Zook, hire good coaches. When we out talent them they out coach us, when they out talent us they destroy us. Either way they win.

“I’m afraid the lesson from Saturday night is that Mark Richt is running out of time to bridge that gap.”

all the time in world isn’t going to change anything: he simply appears incapable of imagining and implementing the sorts of changes needed to arrest the decline his mismanagement created in the first place. but, then, that’s usually how organizational change comes about.

Good points all around but all I keep reading out of this post was “we were outcoached in every aspect of the game”. Which has been a theme over the last few seasons.

I’ve never coached before and am simply an armchair, Monday morning Quarterback but I know success when I see it and it simply wasn’t on our sideline Saturday.

Mark Richt used to win these games. Hell, it’s what made Dawg fans love him to begin with. He made us competitive in EVERY game and believe that we could beat anybody. It’s just not the case anymore and I don’t know what the reason is (there are multiple I’m sure). I now feel like I did at the tail end of the Donnan years when I could talk myself into believing that we could beat Tennessee or Florida but at the end of the day I didn’t really believe it and we’d proceed to get outcoached by Fulmer and Spurrier.

I know we can’t get caught up in comparing yourself to the other guy but just look at what Les Miles did Saturday night. With everything swirliing around LSU he was able to get his team to play lights out and get the W.

I no longer have faith that Richt can get this team to respond to adversity.

I hope I’m wrong and we pull out the win against the Cocks but with all evidence on the table, I’d say we’re in trouble.

If Richt does not have the guts to fire Bobo now, Richt should probably SUSPEND Bobo for the rest of the season and resume the OC duties himself starting with SC. This will give the fans a clue if Richt still has what it takes. As of now, this Team may even be in trouble against Ole Miss, and they may be looking at a 3-4 losses after the Miss State game.

To me, it’s very simple. The vast majority of great teams are led by great defenses. Offense is flashy and exciting, but defense wins games and makes a program successful (with exceptions, most recently Auburn).

Oregon’s offense can be as glamorous as they want, but when they run into equal speed lining up on defense, they’re screwed.

I was born in 1965, so I’ve been watching the Dogs since about 1973, and started to understand what I was seeing in about 1976. Georgia has never had a great team that I remember that wasn’t led by a great defense. Even with the best RB to ever play college ball, once Erk left, UGA couldn’t beat Pitt or Penn State at the end. Dooley wouldn’t have been Dooley without Erk, and Richt wouldn’t still be employed at UGA if Van Gorder didn’t help him post an unbelievable first five seasons.

Bobo is maddening, I’ll grant that. But the defense is disheartening, and I’m not smart enough to know why, I just know it is. Defense is the heart and soul of a great team, and our Dogs just haven’t had the look of a team with either heart or soul for a few years now.

They played a lot of very young players against a very good team. I do not care who you are. The spread offense will put points on the board most days. If you think not, then consider Auburn. In less than a minute they put up 14. The defense lost a key player. I do not think thye were totally gassed either. Boise has put up huge numbers on many teams with Moore at QB .If you have the right QB this offense is almost unstoppable. Tebow, Newton, Moore, and etc. They run plays for open spaces. Defense is chasing. But I thought our defense had some very good plays. Losing Ogletree hurt. Not having Rambo hurt. Rosters are important.
i keep looking at those 3 quick strikes. Those were not accidents, Those happened because the offense was on the same page. Mitchell and Crowell to be freshman can play. Murray seemed to unsettled at times and off. But he has to stop giving up field position and negative yardage on plays. That hurts your as to scoring by FG and field position if you have to punt. He is seasoned enough to understand that by now. I think having Bobo in the booth seeing the field better will work with Murray now. The issues will be getting it down to the field. Even in up tempo and no huddle he will have options of plays off certain sets and the subsituted personnel. If they get this down it will be just a step below the spread. Just need to go to more speed on everything. The issue is getting the O line to be on pace. But I’m not sure how Friend works the line down field re the blocking. If the line holds together with no injuries and can rotate players the offense should pickup. 3 quick TDs against Boise’s defense somehow sends a little message to me about where this offense can go. #4 on Boise was a player. Boykin and Murray found that out. As did the young receivers. The personnel is there in TEs and receivers. Need to ramp up their focus and intensity. Thomas, Crowell, Figgins, and Samuel should work. If those other guys can step up their play the Dawgs have what it take to run very up tempo and substitute. Let’s see how much they can progress against what the powers to be think is a possible top 10 team and potential East chamption. Again thie young offense faces a very solid defense.

Your call is spot on and final as to the Freshmen. We can be the encouragement they need to make less and less mistakes. The older hands have already shown what they desire to do for the team and their collective steadying hand can make the difference.

I read thru these tonight. Interesting. I was as pissed as anybody during the game as to what was happening. But when I watched the game again it took on a different perspective. I like the spread offense. And my complaint to CMR is why he did not go to it after seeing it at UF. I do not think most people really understand it. High school is where it changed me. Spreads run plays based on what they are seeing. 3-4 or 3-3 stack is good in stoppping it. When you see the charts and who made tackles the LBs did most. Good, but not really. Not if they are chasing a player in space and that is what Boise did with their plays. You have to slow guys coming across the LOS. Your ends have to be relentless and keep ever thing inside. No where we our ends in that game. How many tackles and hits did they put on Moore? Ogletree and Rambo for 4 quarters would have been big. The D can not be lazy and they can not show too much of their set for the opposing coach to call a play from. Players have to know their areas and get in quick. The offense is making substitutions and getting set again. O line could have done better, but you have to wonder where the D line was too. The 2nd half drive was their key.moment. And after we cut it to 14 with some time left, Boise ran off 5 minutes in the 4th before turning it over. The D is experienced compared to the O this season. New line coach, New RBs, New WRs. Boise was a good game to see what they are and where they are. Mitchell and Crowell can play. They will make frosh mistakes. If I’m an opposing coach down the line I’d be a little alert to a team that can make big plays while they are slowly dialing up their running game. CMR should push the no huddle and up tempo against USC even if we get beat in the process. Keep it going and speed up the play on the offense. I’d use 2 QBs in the process, too.

A few improvements I saw:
1- Offensive speed– Boykin, Mitchell
2- Murray making some solid reads for the most part, did over toss on some, and did get a few dropped, but except for 3 or 4 passes, seemed to do better at reads
3- No offensive fumbles
4- 3rd down defense (only gave up 4 3rd down conv out of 12 or 13)
5- Run def stonewalled Boise’s top gun Martin, under 3 yards a carry
6- Tackling was a lot better

I want to see some guys who don’t drop passes in a lot this week. Michael Bennett only dropped 1 pass since Jan. Aron White never drops a pass. I’d like to see Bennett, Mitchell, and Charles as WR, and White at TE. Like to see some bunch receiver sets to prevent Gilmore from jamming our receivers

To slow down SC’s rush, look for screens, misdirection, and short safe passes.

Like to see some WildDawg with Nick Marshall when we get past the 40 yard line.

A couple thoughts from a Boise fan- Georgia has some talent, but it is still unfortunately still tangled up with youth. This Boise team is very experienced and that makes a huge difference in big games. Which team looked more calm and collected and executed without panic- no doubt Boise stayed composed when both teams struggled early. Boykin- can back up his talk and has some wheels; but my question is why didn’t he see the field more often on offense in order to give Boise something to think about after he broke off an 80 yr run? Was it because the Georgia coaches needed to keep him fresh for defense? All the talk about Boise not having athletes in simply not true. People pay too much attention to recruiting services that assign stars to high school kids. Boise coaches talk to other coaches and find great athletes, who are steller in the classroom, and work hard off the field. Those are the kids that can be coached to succeed on any level. Also, lots of the players on the Boise squad who had offers from PAC12 schools, but want to play in the family atmosphere of a Coach Petersen team. I believe Boise graduated 8 seniors last year and 5 of them are on NFL teams right now. Boise has a talented team with 14 seniors starting this year with NFL first rounder on offensive left tackle, an experienced and accurate QB, and 2 NFL caliber players on a deep defensive line. This could be Boise’s year- don’t count the Dawgs out because they lost to Boise. Oregon and Virginia Tech both lost to Boise to start the year and went on to play in a BCS game.

Cojones, three questions: 1) Who’s job is it to ensure the players execute? 2) Who’s job is it to scheme to their teams strengths and not try to force a scheme on their players? 3) Who’s job is it to identify the opponents weakness and exploit it?

It’s the Staff’s job to drill the players until designed assignments are muscle memory. Yes, mistakes are human nature, but when those mistakes become common regularity it’s the Staff’s job to ensure they don’t continue. Penalties/Stupid mistakes should de dealt with using methods that ensure the player does all in his power not to make them again.

If you have a young team with little experience, the Staff should design a simple scheme that is practiced to perfection. Again, muscle memory. Pick a formation that the players can master and stick with it. If they have been practicing the “hurry up spread” since day one that’s one thing, but there’s only one place to lay the blame if it was something that was planned primarily for the BSU game.

We went from a pre-season # 1 in 2008 to unranked with a losing season in two years. Now we have started 2011 with a loss, and the second game is a big question mark.

Starting loyal Seniors is very honorable yes, but not ncessarily the best qualitiy for actual competion.